Troubleshooting bad recordings

[stevech]

I have two tuners: Hauppauge USB2 and Hauppauge PVR 150 PCI.

Of late, some shows play back as either black and white (via an MVP and also via a Sage PC client), or play back as black and white with 20 or so vertical red stripes. Only happens with the USB2 tuner which I've had a long time.

If I do Watch Live TV with that tuner, about 10% of the time it tunes to a channel and has the problems just described. Seems more prone to local cable access community channel 4 but has happened on Food-TV channel as well.

I have analog cable TV service.

What I've tried so far:
1. Check RF cables/splitters. The signal on the USB2 isn't snowy/noisy
2. Stop Sage Server, power-cycle the USB2, restart server.
3. Reorient the USB2 tuner for more ideal ventilation - though it wasn't hot.

Maybe this do-nothing stuff will fix it. (These techniques usually fix MS Windows. )

[Conejo]

It sure sounds like a heat problem.

If the stream is encoded by hardware then you've really only got two troubleshooting items to look at: 1) Driver instructions to the hardware for encoding, or; 2) The hardware itself.

If it's repeatable within a time frame, try unplugging it for 10 minutes then do a LiveTV.

Are you getting the same result with the Line-In? (It might just be a 'tuner' failure)

[stevech]

I didn't try the Line-in because the problem is very intermittent; like 5-10% of recordings made by that tuner

I suspect it's yet another case of weak or distorted signals from the cable. But I don't know for sure.

What I do know is that my cable gets a lot of ingress (broadcast TV enters cable, causes ghosts on lower channels such as analog cable 2-10). Due to long cheap coax that I cannot replace. The ingress increases when the barometer is high. Direct correlation.

But, Food-TV is a high channel, like 51.

Weather isn't hot. No help from reorienting the USB2 tuner to improve air flow.

Grr. WAF plummets when show is in B & W. Pre-retro-mid-century isn't wanted!

The other tuner is PCI fed from the same two-way splitter. It doesn't screw up.
As said earlier, I have changed cables/splitters, etc.

[Conejo]

In one of my former lives I was an engineer/technician for a few radio stations, so I understand a little about ingress, egress and intermod. ("I'm very sorry you had to listen to Rush Limbaugh on your headset all day long. No, it's because you have a cheap headset. No, I can't turn it down on my end. No, I can't get rid it him or it for you. ...try this RF filter on your phone line.")

Originally Posted by stevech

The other tuner is PCI fed from the same two-way splitter. It doesn't screw up.

If the PCI tuner is recording on the same channels without experiencing the issue then you know what the tuners are capable of and the PCI is setting the standard.

1) You may be experiencing a subtle frequency shift and the PCI tuner is doing better Automatic Frequency Control. Running the USB Happauge software and playing with the tuner might tell you how close it is to breaking.
2) Swap the cable input between the PCI and USB.
3) Try grounding the cable where it comes into the house AND at the splitter next to the tuners (the PC case should be doing this grounding for you already but I direct ground is always better).
4) make sure you resister-cap any open F-connectors on your cable line.
5) make sure all the F-connectors and cables are nice and tight.
6) A nice new RG-6 cable run dedicated to your SageTV tuners... Might not look nice running through the kitchen, but hey, a guy has gotta do what a guy has gotta do.

[stevech]

Originally Posted by Conejo

If the PCI tuner is recording on the same channels without experiencing the issue then you know what the tuners are capable of and the PCI is setting the standard.

1) You may be experiencing a subtle frequency shift and the PCI tuner is doing better Automatic Frequency Control. Running the USB Happauge software and playing with the tuner might tell you how close it is to breaking.
2) Swap the cable input between the PCI and USB.
3) Try grounding the cable where it comes into the house AND at the splitter next to the tuners (the PC case should be doing this grounding for you already but I direct ground is always better).
4) make sure you resister-cap any open F-connectors on your cable line.
5) make sure all the F-connectors and cables are nice and tight.
6) A nice new RG-6 cable run dedicated to your SageTV tuners... Might not look nice running through the kitchen, but hey, a guy has gotta do what a guy has gotta do.

Check, double-check on all the above, except (2); I replaced cable but didn't swap. Wish I could do (6) but I can't; our fine City inspectors let the builder run the TV and phone wires for my townhouse through the attics of 3 neighbors' homes to reach the demarcation box. The cable is junk quality. Nothing I can do except pay $K to get 200' or more replaced. Instead, I've done what I can with A1 quality cables/amps/grounding.

Sage worked fine for long time until this B&W problem arose. Maybe my 1 year old Hauppauge USB2 is "tired". It works 95% ot the time, just like me.